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JetBlue Whistle-Blowers Threatened

Posted by timothy on from the legal-attack-dogs dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Cryptome is reporting that Torch Concepts, the DOD contractor to whom JetBlue gave away its customers' personal information, is now sending cease and desist letters to the privacy activist Bill Scannell (who blew the whistle on the JetBlue scandal) and Len Sassaman, who made the evidence available on his website. The claim made by Torch is copyright violation -- are we about to see the DMCA used to silence corporate and government whistle-blowers? (Ironically, Scannell and Sassaman were two of the key people who launched the campaign to free DMCA victim Dmitry Sklyarov. Karma?"

5 of 14 comments (clear)

  1. What criminal & civil sanctions available? by zenyu · · Score: 5, Interesting

    As a former Jet Blue customer I am very concerned that they may have released customer data in violation of their privacy policy. Is anyone here aware of what kind of fraud or other laws might be applicable here for me to bring to my attorney general's attention (Eliot Spitzer)?

    I will also be sending educational letters to my representative (Carolyn Maloney-D) and senators (Hillary Clinton-D & Charles Schumer-D), about the DMCA and possibly the need for greater criminal sanctions for the type of activity Jet Blue is accused of engaging in. Any one care to educate me?

    1. Re:What criminal & civil sanctions available? by the+eric+conspiracy · · Score: 2, Interesting

      You should also complain to the Federal Trade Commission.

  2. Hate the DMCA, but sort of see Torch's point by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

    The PDF doesn't look like a great presentation, but it probably took someone time, effort (i.e. money) to produce. One could debate that the point the whistle-blowers made could have come from select pages, but on the other hand, credibility in these instances comes from completeness of disclosure. Pick 'em.
    FWIW, their analysis of jetBlue's typical passenger means that your typical dot.com'er of a few years ago -- younger, upper income, short lenght of residence -- would be abnormal, flagged which equals threat? Ouch.

  3. Passenger Records Destroyed by umofomia · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I don't know about the veracity of JetBlue's claims, but the CEO of JetBlue issued a letter to its customers saying:
    The sole set of data in Torch's possession has been destroyed; no government agency ever had access to it. With Torch's help, we are continuing to make every effort to have the Torch presentation with the one customer's information removed from the Internet.
    A copy of the letter can be found here, and the NY Times article about it is here
  4. info in the presentation itself by oliphaunt · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Obviously there are a couple of layers of problem here. One is that JetBlue made a promise to protect privacy, and broke that promise by sending data to a 3rd party. Another is that the TSA appears to *encourage* this kind of abuse, rather than expressing outrage that a carrier would take advantage of their customer relationships in such a manner.

    But I looked at the presentation last week when this story broke (sorry it's a PDF...). To me, the biggest problem is that on Page 20, you have a whole group of individuals identified by SSN and DOB. If I were one of those people, I would be pretty upset- not just at JetBlue, but also at the careless spreadsheet jockey who posted this to the web in the first place.

    This guy sounds like he's interested in doing something about it.

    --




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